Cornelius David Krieghoff Biography | Oil Paintings

6-19-1815 Amsterdam, NED - 4-8-1872 Chicago, USA

Cornelius David Krieghoff was born in Amsterdam and was home schooled by his father before he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Germany in 1830 at the age of fifteen. In 1836 he sailed to New York City, and the following year enlisted in the United States Army. While in the army, he used his artistic knowledge to make sketches in the field during the Second Seminole War and used these to later produced oil paintings after he was discharged from the army in 1840.

Cornelius David Krieghoff and his wife traveled to Paris in 1844, and in the Louvre under the direction of Michel Martin Drolling, he copied the old masters as part of his training.

The Krieghoffs returned in 1846 and moved to Montreal, where he became friends with the Mohawk Indians living on the Kahnawake Indian Reservation, he was welcomed to make sketches of them that he made into oil paintings, and in 1847 he was invited to take part in the first exhibition of the Toronto Society of Arts. He and his family moved to Quebec City in 1853 and in 1854 he returned again to Europe, but this time visiting Italy and Germany, returning to Canada the following year. He lived in Europe from 1863 to 1869 and then returned and retired in Chicago.